Three injured in Vero Beach apartment explosion

Raw audio of 911 calls made after an apartment explosion in Vero Beach.

Bobby Long, of Vero Beach, shot this video of fire at the Sun & Sand apartment complex following an explosion there Thursday night.

An apartment in the southwest corner of the Sun & Sand Complex in the 900 block of Sandpiper Lane exploded about 10 p.m. Thursday. Three people were injured.

VERO BEACH - VERO BEACH — Two people remained hospitalized after an explosion destroyed four units at a barrier island apartment complex late Thursday evening.

About 9:50 p.m. Thursday, Indian River County Fire Rescue responded to an explosion at Sun & Sand apartment complex at 950 Sandpiper Lane. Officials said John DiMarco attempted to help a husband and wife re-light the pilot light to their gas stove.

DiMarco received third-degree burns over most of his body, said his girlfriend, Angela Webb. She gathered clothes at the complex to take to him at Orlando Regional Medical Center and said he was in "really bad condition."

Luciana Couto, 30, received second-degree burns mostly to her face and also was flown to Orlando, Vero Beach police said. Officials at the hospital had no official condition for either DiMarco or Couto Friday. Couto's husband, Justin Ryan Hamilton, 29, received shrapnel burns, authorities said. He was treated at Indian River Medical Center and released Thursday night, police said.

Red flames were shooting out from the building and over treetops when firefighters arrived, said Norman Wells, battalion chief. The explosion took off the roof to the apartment unit and charred the inside. It took firefighters about 20 minutes to extinguish the blaze, Wells said. But by 1 a.m. Friday, the fire was still smoldering and gray smoke could be seen over the apartment's location. The complex has eight units overall.

Two 100-gallon free-standing liquefied petroleum tanks behind the dwellings didn't catch fire, said Brian Nolan, spokesman for Indian River County Fire Rescue, noting the tanks were refilled Tuesday.

American Red Cross officials said they assisted three people displaced by the explosion. Two women, Brenda Erhart and Serena Santos, 20, moved in with relatives and a couple are staying in a hotel.

Erhart lives next door to where the fire occurred and had left her apartment only 10 minutes before the blast to meet her niece, Kaylie Erhart, for drinks at a nearby restaurant. Brenda Erhart's sister, Sherry Erhart, rushed to the burning apartments not knowing her sister was alive.

When they reached each other by cell phone, "I just fell to my knees," Sherry Erhart said. "I thought she was dead."

"If my niece hadn't called me, that could have been me inside," said Brenda Erhart, who was visible shaken and crying, and gestured to the charred apartment units.

Brenda Erhart said she'd moved to Vero Beach from Woodland Park, Colo., about a month ago after losing her job. Her husband is in Colorado attempting to sell their home and then he will join her in Vero Beach.

Sherry Erhart didn't hesitate to point out a higher power saved her sister.

"If you don't believe in God, now is the time to believe," Sherry Erhart said. "Someone was looking out for her. If she had just taken time to do her hair, make up or anything she wouldn't be here."

Another burn victim in the explosion was Santos' cat, Puma, she said. Santos had been out with friends during the explosion and assumed she had lost Puma along with all of her belongings in the blaze, she said. But about 4 a.m., Puma was found on the outskirts of the complex with severe burns, she said. The cat was being treated at the Florida Veterinarian League in Vero Beach, she said.

Greg Bracken, manager of the Maison Martinique restaurant, which borders the apartment complex, said DiMarco works at the restaurant.

Bracken said he was preparing to close the restaurant when the explosion occurred and he rushed over to help.

"He's an incredible person, wonderful person and was just trying to help," Bracken said of DiMarco.

City resident Bobby Long, 22, heard and felt the explosion several blocks away inside his home on Tulip Lane.

"The whole house shook," Long said. "The first thing I thought was, ‘Is there a space shuttle launch or something tonight?' It felt like a sonic boom."

Long raced to the scene in his bare feet and use his Blackberry to record a video of the fire.